Equal in Authority and Honor

We live in a culture that says it doesn't matter what you believe as long as you're sincere and kind. But Jesus makes an exclusive claim that cuts through all that cultural noise like a sword. Today we're looking at perhaps the most challenging aspect of Christ's deity.

John 5:21-24 "For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes. For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son, so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him."

Here's something that might shock you: Jesus says He's the judge. Sometimes people say, "I don't want to believe in a God that judges others." Well, it doesn't matter what we want to believe – it matters how God has revealed Himself in His Word.

From Jesus's own mouth, He tells us the Father has given all authority to the Son – authority to do two main things: raise to life and judge at the end of all time. In the Old Testament, God and God alone had the power to raise the dead. The king of Israel once asked, "Am I God? Can I kill and bring back to life?" The answer was no – no one can give life other than God, both in a physical sense and spiritual sense.

But here's what has massive ramifications for you this morning: God is the judge of the earth, and you're going to stand before Him. Jesus says the office of Judge, both in the present day and on the last day, has been given to Him.

Now, Jesus didn't come to condemn in His first advent – He came to save. But those who reject and refuse to believe in Him are already condemned (John 3:18). They're already under the judgment of God. Men are already judged in the present tense, and in the future tense there's a final day where they will stand before the Judge of the universe whose name is Jesus Christ.

And here's the kicker – Jesus demands equal honor with the Father. He's not coming as an ambassador representing the Father, like some substitute teacher saying, "Mrs. Johnson wants you to listen to me like you listen to her." No way. Jesus is saying, "If you don't honor Me, you don't honor Him, because I and Him are equal in deserving honor, glory, and praise."

Isaiah 42:8 says, "I am the Lord, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another." And yet here Jesus is saying that when you glorify Him, when you honor Him, you're not honoring another – you're honoring God Himself.

It's not rational to make Jesus a model of morality if you don't also believe He's God. The Pharisees had no other way to explain the signs He was performing. There were really only two options then, and there are only two options now: you either bow down before Him, or you call Him the devil of hell.

Either Jesus was a deceiver, or He was a madman, or He is exactly who He claimed to be – God in the flesh, worthy of the same worship as the Father (Lewis, Mere Christianity).

What's our response? Verse 24: "Truly, truly I say to you, he who hears My word and believes him who sent Me has eternal life and does not come into judgment but has passed out of death into life."

The whole of Christianity stands or falls on the deity of Jesus. The world's most important question is: Who is Jesus Christ? And the most important question you could ever ask yourself is: Do I know Him?

Stay dialed in.